IAEE marketing partner, Feathr, has published a series of case studies examining the unique challenges companies in the exhibitions and events industry are facing and offering solutions they discovered. In this feature, learn how the American Epilepsy Society (AES) worked with Feathr to help a one-person marketing team become an ROI force to reckon with.
THE CHALLENGE
AES’ sole marketer needed a solution to reach new audiences and increase the number of attendees, without much overhead.
THE SOLUTION
AES used Feathr to promote its annual meeting in 2017 and never looked back. As a result, AES enjoyed 1,627,324 total ad views and gained 2,433 event attendees.
ABOUT THE AMERICAN EPILEPSY SOCIETY
AES is a community of professionals engaged in the understanding, diagnosis, study, prevention, treatment and cure of epilepsy and committed to improving outcomes for persons with epilepsy.
HEADQUARTERS
Chicago, Illinois
MEMBERSHIP
400
USE CASE
Event Promotion
PRODUCTS USED
Feathr Ads and Implementation Services
Nicole Rodriguez, marketing manager for the American Epilepsy Society (AES), needed to grow the number of attendees for the society’s annual meetings. While display advertising is a smart choice for promoting events, AES simply didn’t have the bandwidth to dedicate much time to it. As the only member of the marketing team, Rodriguez is often spread thin.
“As a marketing team-of-one, I wear many hats,” said Rodriguez. “I can only do so much. Back then [in 2017], we were growing fast and the number of my responsibilities kept increasing. I had no time to start a new initiative. We needed a way to launch an effective advertising campaign, but we didn’t have the resources to hire another person.”
Rodriguez searched for a tool that would make it possible for her to reach an audience beyond the organization’s existing database. That’s when she turned to Feathr. “My goal was to broaden our reach during the promotion of our annual meeting,” said Rodriguez. “Little by little, we wanted to get new people into our funnel, but we really didn’t know how to do that. Thankfully, Feathr made that possible. It was the perfect solution to our dilemma.”
More than an advertising tool
While Rodriguez was glad to find a promising solution, she was worried about the learning curve and onboarding associated with a completely new tool. To her surprise, “the simplicity of Feathr was refreshing. I got up and running fast and their team was very helpful when I had a question,” she said.
Since using Feathr, Rodriguez feels like she’s gained more than an advertising tool — she’s gained a partner who acts as an extension of her team. “Everyone I’ve worked with has been absolutely wonderful,” she said. “They have no problem rolling up their sleeves and jumping in to be a part of my nonexistent marketing team.”
Rodriguez is also grateful to have a solution that works 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Once a campaign is launched, “I can set it and forget it,” she said. “I can invest a few hours in the beginning to get the campaign running, then I don’t have to worry about it until my Outlook calendar tells me that the campaigns are ending. The best thing for me — especially being a team of one — is that it allows me to be more efficient and reach more people in more ways,” she said.
“At the end of the day, could I run display advertising without using Feathr? Yes, I can. Do I want to do that? No, I don’t. That’s because doing it on my own takes a lot of work, and I just don’t have the time. For me, time is a commodity, so to be able to save time and achieve the results we do with Feathr, using it is a no-brainer,” she said.
